Here's how Lori Lightfoot can wield her mandate

Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot speaks to supporters at her election night party April 2, 2019, at the Hilton Chicago Grand Ballroom in Chicago.

Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot speaks to supporters at her election night party April 2, 2019, at the Hilton Chicago Grand Ballroom in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

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By a roughly 3-to-1 ratio, Chicago voters gave Lori Lightfoot the landslide victory we hoped she would receive. But how does a new mayor wield a mandate? We hope she moves forcefully on one front, cautiously on another and the third, well, when it comes to the aldermen, Lightfoot will have to herd cats.

The sooner Lightfoot signals that she appreciates the depth of City Hall’s financial woes, the better. Quickly naming a smart public finance team will give Chicagoans some assurance and keep the municipal bond market calm.

For months you’ve heard candidates for mayor murmur about marijuana revenues, or sports betting, or a progressive state income tax sending new money to Chicago from Springfield. Someday. They hope.

But although there are 25 states with at least one Springfield, the Illinois Springfield is the one that is home to a state government gazillions of dollars in debt. Maybe the Democrats who run the Capitol will rescue Chicago. Or … maybe not.

Here’s hoping Lightfoot can parlay her big win into instant respect at the statehouse.

Lightfoot won’t run Chicago by herself. On two of the biggest issues facing the city — public safety and public schools — she’ll have major personnel decisions to make that could help determine her own success as mayor. We hope, rather than imperiously cleaning house, she gives the incumbents an opportunity to argue for themselves and their agendas. Lightfoot has said that immediately after the election, she would meet with Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to discuss a strategy for combating summer gun violence. That meeting could set the tone for her decision whether to retain Johnson or pick someone else to run a department undergoing reforms that Lightfoot, a former Police Board president, helped to initiate.

On schools, Lightfoot has been critical of Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson over a sexual misconduct scandal, one brought to light by Tribune reporting. Lightfoot blamed Jackson and her boss, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, for an “epic leadership fail,” a degree of criticism that raises the odds of a departure. We don’t know if Jackson is the right person for the job long-term. But we doubt that a mayor-elect knows that either.

As for herding those cats: The City Council — on paper, anyway — is supposed to act as a check on the executive branch. But the body generally has operated exactly the opposite. What the mayor wants, the mayor usually gets. One quick test of Lightfoot and her leadership of the 50-member body will be the continuation, or the termination, of that culture.

Will Lightfoot encourage the sweeping-out of longtime, established committee chairmen and support replacing them with new, independent leaders? Or will she assume control of committee chairmanships as Emanuel did by rewarding allies with these plum jobs? Her early decisions will signal change or more of the same.

Lightfoot also campaigned on ending aldermanic privilege, the custom of allowing aldermen to wield tight control over development in their wards. Will the council motor along as always, wielding a heavy thumb on ward development? If council members do that, they’ll flout her campaign declaration: “No aldermen should have that kind of power where people feel like the only way people can get basic city services and get business going into the ward is to kiss the ring of the alderman.”

Aldermen, she said, also shouldn’t have outside jobs that conflict with their official roles. How Lightfoot honors that campaign mantra remains to be seen.

Lightfoot’s mandate gives her clout but not much of a honeymoon. She’ll begin to accumulate a record and a reputation for strong or shaky leadership on Day One.